Where I wanna be
by OtterAndTerrier
Summary: "I seriously could not believe how I could be so out of my mind as to take Lavender to my place." - Hermione/Ron/Lavender, 6th year.


Finally, posting a new story! I hadn't written fanfic for a long time when I started with this; the last published and finished story was that about Draco. This was intended to take part in a contest, but saddly, no one else entered (yes, people is really un-cooperative sometimes!), so I decided to post it anyway. The plot had to be written from Ron's point of view and it had to involve Ron, Hermione and Lavender Brown. I hope you will like it, it's not the big story but it was fun to write, as always.

On other news, I want to devote myself as much as possible to typing and finishing as many stories as possible :D I've got a good bunch of one-shots and a few fics that I want to polish and post.

This one-shot was betaed by my friend **Dayna**, also known as **zwillo**, from the Veritaserum Forums and Twitter. Thank you a lot! (Believe me, in some parts she deserves the 80% of the credit :P)

**Disclaimer: I don not own any of the following characters, places, names or magical items; they all belong to JK Rowling and I will not make money on her behalf :) **

**Song: "Here in your arms" by Hellogoodbye.  
**

* * *

**Where I wanna be**

_I like where we are,  
__when we drive  
in your car.  
I like__ where we are;__  
here._

It was like a gong ringing inside my head. She said it, and it was like a gong ringing inside my head.

"What'd you say, Won-Won?"

"My name is Ron," I told her for the hundredth time. "Repeat it, but slowly please."

"What do you think about us spending Christmas together?" asked Lavender, beaming as though it were the cleverest idea ever.

"Why?" I hardly could control the horror in my voice.

"Because I'll miss you! Won't you miss me?" she added in reproach.

"Sure I will, but… I'm going home for Christmas, you know."

"So am I! Then choose. Which place, yours or mine?" asked Lavender, disregarding further concern.

"Er, don't you think it's rushing it a bit? To er to do the meet the family thing and all?" I asked carefully, still awestruck.

"But it'd be only one day, it could be Christmas Eve, or Boxing Day if you prefer it. Come on, pretty please?'

"Er, one day?" I said, relieved. "Well, in that case… I think I could take you to the Burrow."

"Excuse me?" She widened her eyes.

"That's my house." Suddenly I remembered how little we knew about each other, and how little I cared.

"Oh, why do you call it 'the burrow'?"

"Search me," I shrugged. "I guess I'd better write my mother. Christmas Eve, then?"

_Cause our lips can touch,  
and our cheeks can brush.  
Our lips__ can touch;  
here._

After a quick goodbye, I got rid of Lavender and made my way to the Owlery. I seriously could not believe how I could be so out of my mind as to take Lavender to my place. I thought of Harry's look of annoyance, Ginny's of scorn; Fred and George taking the mickey out of me, my mother nosing around. And Hermione, her look of deep disappointment, above all.

As if I had conjured her, Hermione was there, in the Owlery, hunched over to tie a letter to a shining brown owl.

She took my breath away. I had not been this close to her for such a long time. I couldn't even remember the last time we had laughed together. Her face was pink with the cold of the place. Her hair cascaded down past her shoulders, her eyes seemed free of the sadness they usually bore, concentrating on the task of tying her letter. She let the owl go but stayed for a moment to watch its flight through the window, from which the last dim beams of sun hit her face.

But the shadows under her eyes appeared as soon as she turned around to leave and saw me. Without a second glance, she skirted well away from me and went out, and hell… I didn't have the guts to stop her.

_Well you are the one, the one that lies close to me.  
Whispers "Hello, I've missed you quite terribly."  
I fell in love, in love with you suddenly.  
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms._

"What!?" shouted Harry, unconsciously throwing away his Invisibility Cloak. "Please tell me this is your April Fools' joke in advance."

"No er… it's not," I replied, throwing nervous glances to the doorway leading inside the boys dormitories, where we were, and to the Cloak alternatively. "Sorry, mate, I didn't have much of a choice."

"'Course you had, you could have told her no!'

I let out a deep sigh as I waved my hand in reply.

"I think I might stay at Hogwarts this year. Or rather, I could ask Hermione to have me at her house, that way we both won't feel as pissed off "

"Go pick up that Cloak before someone comes in." I shot him a hard glance.

Harry waved his wand, without mouthing the charm, but the Cloak across the room barely stirred. "It's not worth it. _Accio!_"

_I like, where you sleep,  
when you sleep next to me.  
I like where you sleep;  
here._

"I'm-so-excited to be here with you!" squealed Lavender, tugging on my arm as we walked up the lane to the Burrow.

"You can't imagine how thrilled I am," grunted Harry through gritted teeth.

I was still dizzy from the Knight Bus trip from King's Cross to Ottery St Catchpole, so I saved my words and grimaced.

As I had feared, it was an awful day. My mother could not disguise her thoughts on my girlfriend, thoughts that were not very encouraging. Fred and George kept checking Lavender's… front part and looking at me with serious disbelief, which I only found tedious. Harry and Ginny wouldn't even talk to us any more than necessary, and Ginny even 'forgot' to pass me a plate of pudding after lunch, serving Harry an extra piece of dessert. Fleur, unaware of anything, was the only one who behaved normally, I reckon.

But who definitely screwed it up was my father. He arrived and went greeting everybody, until he reached the living room, where Lavender and I were drying the snow on the freshly cut tree, that was beginning to drip on the carpet.

"Hello, Ron, Hermione, glad to have you here!"

Lavender went pale and gave me a demanding look.

"Dad!" I had to catch him before he started climbing up the staircase. "This is Lavender."

"Ah, nice to meet you, my dear," he said as if nothing had happened, stretching out a hand to her. "And where's Hermione, then? I'd say I've seen everyone else by now!"

"She must be at home, right?" answered Lavender, trying to control the outrage in her voice. "Her _real_ home?"

"Sorry?" asked dad, slightly confused.

"Hermione is not coming this year, Arthur," said mum, sparing me further humiliation, coming into the room with the laundry. "I thought we were going to have her but I suppose she had plans with her parents. Right, Ron?"

"Yeah… who knows," I mumbled.

_Our lips can touch,  
and our cheeks can brush.  
Cause our lips can touch;  
here._

"I didn't know your family was so close to Hermione Granger," commented Lavender after dinner.

We were strolling through the orchard, and the cold gave her the perfect excuse to walk stuck to me, and even when she did, she still showed her annoyance.

At my silence, she went straight to the point.

"How close are they?"

"Hermione's spent three summers and a Christmas with us, and Harry," I replied, remembering how wonderful those times were.

"That doesn't answer my question, Ron.

"What do you want from me?"

"I better not tell you," she smirked, but she cleared her throat and said, "I only want to get to know my rival, you've got to understand that!"

"Your Sorry, what?" I shook my head to organize my thoughts and try to understand what she was saying.

"Oh please, Ron! Don't tell me you've not realized!"

"You're saying you want to be the first of the class?" came to me, only raking my brains, but with a ridiculous suggestion.

"No," said Lavender scowling, and she faced me, taking both of my hands. "Come off it, Ron, you know what it is!"

As I shrugged, she blurted out, "That girl's got a crush on you! Gosh, can't you even see it?"

"What? That's rubbish!" I mumbled, turning red from my own embarrassment. "How could she, we've been friends for all this time, that's all, and she That's completely rubbish. Why would you think that?"

"Because she stopped talking to you when we started going out, she doesn't even look at you; she doesn't speak to me either. And I've seen her sneaking out of the dormitories at midnight, and heard her sobbing in that classroom!" exploded Lavender. "If she does that with all of her male friends, well, sweet of her. And everyone here seems to love her, to miss her, while I'm here trying to fit in and be nice. It's just obvious."

She pulled me down to lounge with me on the back porch, which we had just reached.

"But I won't care as long as you still want to be with me." She threw her arms around my neck and pressed her cheek against mine. I thought her skin wasn't as nice as Hermione's. "Do you?" she asked. And for some weird reason, I remembered the touch of some lips on my cheek, on the one Lavender wasn't leaning on.

Christmas Eve is not a good time for break-ups, I thought.

"Wow, it's Christmas." I pointed in the direction of the distant sound of bells.

"Merry Christmas, then! I guess I'd better go now." She kissed me for a few seconds. "I didn't mean to spend the whole night talking about Hermione Granger. This didn't go as I planned it."

"I know," I agreed, still thinking of Hermione.

"My present is below the tree." She beamed again, and seeing my worried look added, "Don't worry, you don't have to give me anything."

"Merry Christmas," I smiled. "Let's get back inside."

_Well you are the one, the one that lies close to me.  
Whispers "Hello, I've missed you quite terribly."  
I fell in love, in love with you suddenly.  
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms._

Everybody was exchanging good wishes when we entered the kitchen; the radio had interrupted the horrible jazz songs my mom had been listening to ever since we finished dinner to proclaim a 'Merry Christmas, from the British Ministry for Magic to the wizarding world', and a few heads were yawning.

"Merry Christmas, everybody! Thanks for having me over, Mrs and Mr Weasley, but I've got to go," said Lavender.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay until tomorrow morning, dear? You could share with Ginny," said mum without realizing how far Ginny's eyebrows had shot.

"No, thank you," replied Lavender, who had seen this, and now looked away rather affronted. "My family will be waiting for me. Nice to meet you all."

Taking a handful of flu powder, she disappeared in the fireplace with a great deal of soot. No one said a word, but I felt a few dagger-looks aimed at me, until dad said "Ahem, I think it's time for us all to go to bed, shall we?"

_Our lips__ can touch...  
Our lips can touch.  
Here._

It was cold and early, way earlier than what I'm used to, and would ever want to get up from my cozy bed, but I did. Harry turned around mouthing random words, but didn't open up his eyes so I took the letter he had laid on my desk, under his glasses.

'_Merry Christmas, Harry! I hope you're doing well. I'm sending you my present tonight because I'm leaving early tomorrow with my parents. We're going skiing again and I couldn't find an alibi this time, so expect me to return to Hogwarts with a broken limb.__Please give the Weasleys my seasonal greetings. Not to all the Weasleys.  
Hugs, and see you soon!_

_Hermione'_

It was the fourth time I read it, and the last statement still let me down. Had I expected her to take my relationship with Lavender well? Blimey, why wouldn't she? After all, she never had a second thought when dating other guys, why should I? Had I thought about anything at all when I had Lavender in front of me after the Quidditch match, when we ended up snogging? No! You usually don't think when you're in such situation, you just act! I still think she's hot, but I wasn't expecting it to turn out this way. Did I wish I had gone with someone I knew almost from toes to the top of her head to Slughorn's party, instead of spending the night cuddling with a person I hardly knew? Maybe… After all Lavender revealed to me, bet I would have liked a better choice.

_Well you are the one, the one that lies close to me.  
Whispers "Hello, I've missed you quite... missed you quite."  
I fell in love, in love with you suddenly.  
Now there's no place else I could be but here in your arms._

"Merry Christmas, boy! Isn't it rather early to be out and about? Or were you sneaking to get your presents before anyone else, eh?" welcomed the Muggle bartender of the village.

"Ah, eh… Merry Christmas. I'd like to use the phone, please, and…" I said, scratching my chin slightly awkward at this contact with a Muggle for help. "How can I find a telephone number?"

"Excuse me?" the chubby, red-cheeked man said, looking at me as if I were a foreigner. Of course, in the Muggle world, I was.

"You see… I've got a friend I'd like to call, to wish… er, a Merry Christmas, you know, but I don't have a clue what her telephone number is."

"Ah, you want a telephone guide, of course!" he said, slamming his hands together. "Do you know where the Miss lives?"

"Ye No, actually." I surprised myself seeing I couldn't remember the place, despite the many letters we had exchanged. "Is there a way ?"

"Er, I hope she isn't named Smith, but yes!"

"No, it's Granger. And… will it will it take too long? She's leaving soon, you know."

It didn't take us too long to find out, because we found Hermione's number thanks to her father's office.

"Can I have a moment?" I asked as kindly as possible to the bartender, thanking him for his help. He bowed and disappeared to a back room.

I mentally reviewed the instructions my father had given me three years ago after I disastrously phoned Harry. Not to hang up after the second ring. Not to freak out when the other person answers. Not to shout back. Keep the phone close to your ear. And I dialed.

"Hello?" a well-known voice answered after the third ring.

"Her ahem Hermione?" _Damn it!_

"One moment please, she will be here in a second."

It was her mum, I guess. Exactly the same voice, but it wasn't her. My thoughts weren't left hanging for long, though.

"This is Hermione, who is this?"

"Merry Christmas, Hermione," I said feebly, but clearly.

"Merry Christmas," she said after a pause. "Who is this?"

"I know you're leaving now, but since you excluded me from your Christmas wishes… I wanted to let you know that I haven't, so…"

"Is that all?" she spat with a much colder voice. "That's why you've called, because you felt diminished by something I did?"

"No. You heard what I said. Is it too little for you that I care?"

"Really, you have to ask?" Hermione now seemed to be whispering.

"Of of little things the world is made of, you know," was the only thing that came to me, but I thought it sounded brilliant.

Hermione didn't say a thing, so I took a deep breath and said, "Well, yes, that was all. I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year; have a nice time and… see you at Hogwarts, I guess."

"You guess?" she replied shakily.

"Unless… you've got plans for New Year. Because well, if you haven't, you could drop by the Burrow. There's a… my mother, she wants to say hi, and also Harry, I think he's got the season's blues…"

I heard a burst of air in the earpiece; I think she might have laughed.

"Merry Christmas, Ron."

"Let me know, then."

And I'm sure I heard something else as I put down the phone.

_Here in your arms.  
Than here in your arms._


End file.
